Republican gubernatorial hopefuls (from left) Stan Pulliam, Christine Drazan, Bud Pierce and Bob Tiernan took part in a televised debate Thursday, April 28.

Four Republican candidates for governor appeared in a televised debate Thursday.

The candidates are competing in the May 17 Republican primary to choose the party’s nominee for governor.

The debate was hosted by KOIN 6 News and Pamplin Media Group, and broadcast on KOIN.

Former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, 2016 GOP governor nominee Bud Pierce, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam and former Oregon GOP chair Bob Tiernan were invited to take part in the debate.

They were selected from all 19 GOP candidates based on criteria set forth by Nexstar Broadcasting Inc., KOIN 6’s parent company. The debate was hosted by KOIN 6 News anchor Jeff Gianola.

Homelessness

Homelessness was the first question, with Pierce answering first.

“What we need to do is get people out of the homeless situation, into shelters — shelters that are transforming their lives from lives of abject suffering to lives that matter to them and to us,” he said.

Pierce said many suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, along with untreated mental illness. He wants to support aide to end their suffering, while in doing so, “eliminating crime on our streets.”

Pierce was asked later what his plan is if homeless people won’t go into a shelter. He said if people leave the shelter and end up in public spaces again, they’re breaking the law. He said people should be placed in a locked shelter or will be incarcerated.

Pierce hopes to end homelessness in the state, he said.

Tiernan said it is more than a Portland problem, though it affects communities throughout the state. Allowing people to live on the street creates more problems. 

Pulliam said the governor needs to triple the size of the state police.

“We need to be tough with the criminal elements living on the street,” Pulliam said.

Drazan said the governor needs to aid communities “to clear our streets” by addressing the root causes of the homeless issue.

“Yes it is people without housing, but it is also people facing mental illness, behavioral health struggles, substance use disorder, addiction and the criminal element absolutely comes from those challenges,” she said.

Oregon has a very strong safety net, Drazan said.

“We need to use it.”

She said the governor needs to find ways to offer people the help they need to get off the street and enforce ordinances that keep streets clear so people can walk on sidewalks and feel safe while doing so.

Elections

A viewer question asked “Do you think the results of the 2020 presidential election were fair?”

Former President Donald Trump has made claims that the election won by President Joe Biden was stolen by Democrats through systematic fraud across several states.

Court rulings in 2020 and 2021 at every level rejected the claims as unfounded.

Drazan claimed there were “irregularities in the election across the nation.” 

As House Republican Leader, Drazan said she worked to ensure Oregon election system has integrity.

The Secretary of State oveseeing the election in Oregon at the time was former House Speaker Bev Clarno of Redmond, a Republican appointed by Gov. Kate Brown following the 2019 death of Dennis Richardson.

“People should have cause to have faith in their elections in 2022,” she said of Oregon.

Pierce said he believes Joe Biden was elected president, and supports Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, but would like to see more oversight.

Tiernan too said Biden won the 2020 election. Ultimately, he said, Trump lost the election because he lost in Georgia.

Then came Pulliam, who has been an outspoken advocate of the “stolen election” conspiracy theories.

“Biden, Biden, Biden,” Pulliam said emphatically. “They all three say Biden won.”

Pulliam said a Republican candidate for governor who is a true conservative should stand up and say “the 2020 election was absolutely fraudulent.” 

Interstate 5 tolling

When asked about interstate tolling, Pulliam said he’s against it. He said he’ll stand in the way of any proposed tolling that came his way. He thinks tolling is unfair without providing any additional lanes or improvements to the roads.

Drazan agreed that congestion pricing cannot move forward. She said Oregon already pays a lot in taxes and that what we pay for our roads should already support our roads.

Drazan said families who can’t control when they take their kids to school or head to work would pay the price with tolls.

Pierce is also against tolling freeways, he said. He said in the era of zero-polluting cars, we need more roads and bridges and that it’s already way too expensive for people to live in Oregon. He said tolls are a way to get out of building more road capacity.

“We don’t pay for what we’ve already paid for,” he stated.

Tiernan agrees the roads are already paid for and people don’t need to pay for them again. He said tolling is another way the government is trying to collect more dollars.

He feels this will incentivize poorer people to stay home and will discourage people from coming to Portland because it will cost them to drive on the freeways. He believes the traffic problem needs to be solved, but this isn’t the way to solve it.

Abortion

During the lightning round segment of the debate, Drazan was asked whether she would work to increase restrictions on abortions in Oregon. She answered with a very definitive statement.

“I am a pro-life woman,” she said. “If any legislation comes to my desk to expand access to abortion in the state of Oregon, I will veto it.

Rural Oregon

Candidates were asked how specifically they would make rural Oregon areas feel more connected and heard in state government.

Pulliam stated he’d “let them know that they’re not forgotten.”

“What they want is individual control, they want empowerment of their own communities and are tired of Portland politicians forcing their values and beliefs on us,” he said.

Being from Klamath Falls, Drazan said she understands what people in rural areas of the state are going through.

“They’re asking for us to give them their lives back, to respect the differences that exist in the rural parts of the state and you do that by getting government out of their lives more. It’s absolutely possible and we have to do it, they deserve it,” Drazan said.

Pierce said he would refocus the state economy on national resources. If elected, He would like to spend two to three months at a time in different parts of the state and wants to live in different parts of Oregon while the Legislature is not in session.

Tiernan said he’d treat every part of Oregon like it’s his own backyard. He said a problem in any small community is his problem.

Natural resource economy

A viewer from Gresham posed the question, “What issue facing Oregon do you believe is most overlooked or not talked about enough?”

Pierce kicked this off by again talking about bringing a natural resource-based economy back to rural areas of the state.

“We found out from the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, or the war in Ukraine that we’re very, right now totally dependent on other countries and society for materials that we absolutely need to have,” he said. 

“Its good to have trade and to have a relationship so we have a good relationships but we can’t be absolutely dependent.”

Other candidates

Nearly three dozen candidates for governor are vying for their parties’ nomination in the 2022 primaries on May 17.

The list includes 19 Republicans and 15 Democrats, along with the likely non-affiliated candidacy of former Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose.

Republicans are also fighting history. No GOP candidate has won the governorship since Vic Atiyeh’s re-election in 1982.

Democrats are meeting in Sunriver this weekend and will hold a debate among some of their candidates, including former House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Treasurer Tobias Read.

A collaborative of Oregon journalists wrote 15 questions to help you get to know these folks before you cast your ballot. Click on each candidate’s “card” below to see how they responded to our questions on housing, crime, education, the economy and environmental issues.

The Oregon Capital Bureau contributed additional editing and reporting to the orginal KOIN staff story.